Page 99 of Rise of the Siren Queen
The drive back felt entirely different from before, no thrill of freedom, only the weight of realization carving itself into me, deeper with each mile. I’d never felt a need this fierce, this consuming. It was maddening, like craving air itself. The thought of her, close enough to touch yet feeling miles away, left a hollow ache I couldn’t explain. I needed her in a way that went beyond reason.
The elevator doors slid open with a soft chime, and I froze mid-step.
There, waiting at my door like a storm cloaked in silk, stood my mother.
“Mom?” I said, voice sharper than I intended. “What are you doing here?”
Her spine straightened. That regal stillness in her posture, the kind I’d always chalked up to years of etiquette and wealth, tightened. Then her gaze slid past me as if I were nothing more than a shadow, locking onto Iryen. Her eyes narrowed, not with suspicion… but recognition. A cold, assessing gleam sharpened her features before she turned her attention back to me.
I’d always known my mother was striking. Slightly tanned skin, wavy chestnut hair that fell in effortless waves, hazel eyes flecked with gold like mine, but colder, older. Her beauty wasn’t soft. It was the kind that could slit throats with a smile. Petite, delicate, lethalin her own right. She had a grace that came from power, the kind you didn’t earn. You werebornwith it. And suddenly, I realized something terrifying: she and Iryen weren’t so different.
The air shifted, something primal curling beneath my skin. Iryen tensed beside me, shoulders straightening, posture coiling like a bow drawn tight. Then, her expression changed.
Recognition. Shock.
Her head dipped slightly in reverence, voice dropping to barely a whisper.
“Your Majesty.”
What? My mother didn’t move. Didn’t blink. Just stood there, letting that title settle like a blade at my throat.Majesty?
The words slammed into me like a freight train. My mother?
Pieces slide together badly, violently. Like puzzle fragments being jammed into place where they didn’t belong.
The “lost princess” Iryen had mentioned.
Those endless childhood trips to that remote island. The whispered hints about her family were always brushed aside. “Far, far away,” she’d say. Every time, with a distant smile.
I never questioned her lineage. The questions she never answered. My hybrid nature.
My hands curled into fists.
“What…” My voice came out low, gravel dragged across stone. “What do you mean,‘Your Majesty’?”
Silence. The air thickened between us.
Iryen stared at her as if she were staring into the eye of a ghost. My mother didn’t flinch. An unspoken and sharp battle between them. And I was the fool standing in the middle of it, furious and clueless.
“Tell me.” The words weren’t a request.They were a demand, fire laced with something darker, betrayal. I would not ask again.
My mother’s voice cut through the tension, crisp as shattered glass. “Not here.”
I’d never heard that tone from her before. There was iron in it. Royalty.
I stepped forward, jaw locked. “Fine. Let’s go inside.”
The lock clicked beneath my hand like a gun cocking, and the storm followed me in.
Iryen’s silence was a blade pressed to my throat, deliberate and maddening. Her face gave me nothing. No twitch, no shift, just that cold, unreadable calm that only made the fire under my skin burn hotter. The air between us crackled with tension, thick with unspoken truths, and it waschokingme. I could feel control slipping through my fingers like water soaked in blood. I needed answersnow,or I was going to snap and burn this whole damn secret to the ground.
Inside, the silence clung to the walls like rot. We settled onto the couch, the balcony’s glass reflecting a version of me I didn’t recognize—tense, coiled, teeth clenched so tight my jaw ached. I forced my breathing to even out, but it was like inhaling smoke. The tension in the room wasn’t just thick—it wassuffocating, crawling beneath my skin like a disease I couldn’t shake.
“Now,” I said, my voice rough and controlled only by sheer will, “one of you is going to explain to me what thehellis going on.” My gaze cut between them like a blade, demanding, relentless, fraying at the edge of restraint.
Iryen’s voice came softly, laced with hesitation. “It’s… not my place.”
Wrong answer, little siren.
